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Former Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez indicted on two more murder counts

Aaron Hernandez court appearance

Former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez appears in Attleboro District Court to face murder charges in relation to the death of a friend, Odin Lloyd, on June 26, 2013. Hernandez on Thursday was indicted on the murder of two men in a drive-by shooting in july 29012. (MIKE GEORGE/SUN CHRONICLE/POOL)

Former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez was indicted Thursday on two counts of first-degree murder for the drive-by killings of two men in Boston’s South End in 2012, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said Thursday.

Hernandez now faces three first-degree murder charges. He already is being held without bail for the alleged killing of Odin Lloyd, a friend and semi-pro football player. Conley did not say whether that shooting and the double homicide were connected.

Daniel Abreu and Safiro Furtado were shot and killed while sitting in a car at a traffic light on July 16, 2012, after an encounter with Hernandez in a nightclub, police said.

Relatives of Abreu and Furtado have filed wrongful death lawsuits in Suffolk Superior Court. Each family is demanding that Hernandez pay them $6 million in damages.

Conley said that after a “chance encounter” between Hernandez, Abreu and Furtado at a Boston nightclub, Hernandez pulled his car up to theirs and fired a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson pistol “multiple times” into the car. The shot killed Abreu and Furtado, and injured a third man.

Conley said that investigators had been able to recover the murder weapon and the vehicle Hernandez was driving. Witnesses told police the shots came from an SUV with Rhode Island license plates, and last summer a vehicle fitting that description was towed from a garage in Bristol, Conn., that belonged to Hernandez's uncle.

That vehicle was recovered during the investigation into the killing of Lloyd, who was found shot five times in a North Attleborough industrial park about a half-mile from Hernandez’s home in June 2013.

And now, Hernandez faces charges of more alleged cold-blooded killing.

“For us, this case was not about Aaron Hernandez. This case was about two victims, who were stalked, ambushed, and senselessly murdered on the streets of the city they called home,” Conley said.

“This was a chance encounter where two young men were out ... and basically had an encounter that led to their deaths,” said Police Commissioner William Evans. “I remember going to the scene that morning. ... It was a terrible tragedy.”

Conley said no more information would be available about the “texture and detail” of the encounter at the nightclub until an arraignment next week.

Conley said media reports that Abreu and Furtado were tied to a Massachusetts gang was “unfair to their families and to their memories.”

“Neither of them were involved in gangs, guns, or violent crime of any kind,” he said.

The grand jury has also indicted Hernandez’s cousin, Tanya Singleton, on a criminal contempt charge for refusing to testify to the grand jury about the SUV after being granted immunity, Conley said. Singleton also faces contempt charges for refusing to testify to a grand jury about Lloyd's killing.